The futur proche in French, also known as the near future tense in English, is a construction used to express actions that are going to happen in the immediate or near future. It literally means near future as proche means near. For events happening in the more distant future, you use the futur simple.
In general, the futur proche is most used for referring the future events or actions in French. It’s often used in casual conversations and everyday speech because of its simplicity and immediacy. It’s formed using a conjugated form of the verb aller (to go) followed by an infinitive verb.
Formation of the futur proche
The futur proche is formed by conjugating the verb aller in the present tense according to the subject pronoun (like je, tu or vous), followed by an infinitive verb that represents the action that will take place.
- Subject pronoun + Conjugated form of aller + Infinitive verb
Examples:
- Je vais manger.
- I am going to eat.
- Tu vas partir.
- You are going to leave.
- Il/Elle/On va arriver.
- He/She/One is going to arriver
- Nous allons voyager.
- We are going to traver.
- Vous allez étudier.
- You are going to study.
- Ils/Elles vont jouer.
- They are going to play.
As you can see in these examples, the trick to forming the futur proche lies in conjugating the verb aller to the present tense of the pronoun it precedes. You can find the full conjugation for aller in the table below.
| Subject Pronoun | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Je | vais |
| Tu | vas |
| Il/Elle/On | va |
| Nous | allons |
| Vous | allez |
| Ils/Elles | vont |